


where chocolate failed

by helsinkibaby



Category: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre: Community: 1-million-words, Episode Tag, F/M, Het, Rare Pair, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-21
Updated: 2017-05-21
Packaged: 2018-11-03 09:36:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10964553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: Deanna is rattled after she figures out how to beat the command simulation.





	where chocolate failed

**Author's Note:**

> For the three words weekend challenge  
> Prompts : Wool, pg 412: accomplishments, smile, difference
> 
> I watched "Thine Own Self" or most of it after I got this prompt and one of my never written little crack ships decided to come out to play...

There's a cool breeze blowing through the gardens of her childhood home, one that makes Deanna breathe deeply and close her eyes. She can smell the scent of fresh blooming roses, the ones her father had so carefully transported to Betazed from his childhood home on Earth, had so carefully cultivated year after year. She remembers as a child trying to help him, listening to him as he explained how to water them, how to prune them and later, much to her delight, actually allowing her to take the secateurs and snip away. 

She loves this garden and it never fails to relax her. 

She doesn't hear the holodeck door swish open but she knows she's not alone when she senses a familiar presence, one that seeps through the empathic walls she puts up. She doesn't open her eyes even when she hears his footfall behind her, nor even when he stops, doesn't approach her. She senses his hesitation and she smiles. "I know you're there, you know." 

When she turns her head to look at him, Geordi is frowning, just as she'd known he would be. "I'm never going to be able to sneak up on you, am I?" There's a lightness to his tone that's at odds with the furrow of his brow and she pats the bench beside her encouraging him to sit beside her. 

He doesn't need any more invitation than that. 

"I looked for you in Ten Forward," he says when he sits down and it's her turn to frown because she doesn't remember making plans to meet him there. Much of their relationship to date, brief as it's been, has been conducted behind closed doors, neither of them ready to go public just yet, although they're not aware that there are probably rumours - there always are on a ship this size. 

"I was there earlier," she says and she bites her lip as she remembers that Will had brought her there to celebrate finally beating the simulation. Or commiserate with her, she isn't quite sure which. But either way it makes her remember the solution to the problem and she feels tension creep across her shoulder blades again. 

"I know. Guinan told me." If he's concerned that she was there with her ex-lover, he doesn't sound it. "She also said that you left half of your chocolate sundae behind, so I figured I'd better find you quickly to see what's wrong." He's teasing her and it makes her smile again. He chuckles. "That's better. So, c'mon, fess up." 

She sighs. "I figured out how to beat the simulation." 

Geordi nods, but behind his VISOR she knows his eyes are narrowed. His tone, when he speaks, is equally curious. "So you came to your comfort spot to celebrate your accomplishments?" 

Deanna takes a deep breath. "It's to do with how I accomplished it. To save the Enterprise... I had to order someone to their death." He doesn't say anything, maybe sensing that there's more to it. "I had to order you to your death." 

And sitting here, in her father's garden, close enough to him on her mother's favourite bench, her stomach turns all over again. It had felt so real, holodecks always did, but this had been worse somehow. 

She's not sure what kind of reaction she was expecting but Geordi looks utterly nonplussed. "Ok." 

Deanna almost hears the click in her brain as something falls into place. "You knew." Amazement rings clear in her voice and he looks down as he shakes his head lightly from side to side. "You knew all along." 

"What you described was a huge problem in engineering," he reminds her. "Huge problems generally don't have easy solutions. I'm Chief Engineer... the buck stops with me." He shrugs. "Besides... I've taken part in those simulations too." 

He sounds exactly as happy about it as she feels. "I always knew it was a possibility... but it was abstract. Not real." If she closes her eyes, she's back in engineering, looking at him, knowing what she's asking him to do. "I wasn't prepared for the difference." 

"It's not easy." He's speaking from experience and she knows it. "But I don't think it's ever meant to be. I mean, if you get comfortable with doing that, with sacrificing lives so readily... what kind of person have you turned in to?"

"True." It's the kind of thing she would have said in one of her counselling sessions. She knows, however, that there's more to it that that. "But it wasn't just that... it was hard... because it was you. Because of what I was ordering you to do." His mouth opens slightly and his surprise cuts through her like a spear. "Because just for a moment, I felt like it was real - that I was creating a world without you in it. And I didn't like that prospect." 

Geordi sucks in a deep breath, lets it out slowly. Then, just as slowly, he reaches out, covers her hand with his. His touch is gentle, but warm enough to chase the tension in her shoulders away as he laces their fingers together. "I can't say I'd be too happy about that prospect either," he says and his tone is light, deliberately so, she thinks. "There's a few things I've been looking forward to..." They share a smile and he casts his eye out over the holodeck. "Getting to see this garden for real, for one." 

Deanna finds herself biting back a smile. "You do realise that will involve informing my mother about us?"

She expects him to blanch, to gulp, to run a mile, all common enough reactions to that scenario. 

Instead his fingers just squeeze hers. "Bring it on," he says and she can feel no doubt from him at all, only utter certainty. 

That certainly and what it means succeeds where earlier chocolate had failed, chasing the last of her bad thoughts away and she feels a smile, broad and beaming, coming to her lips. 

"How about you give me the grand tour, so I know what to expect?" he asks and, standing, still hand in hand, that's just what she does.


End file.
